Just to chime in, EMC has some very informative information about Avamar on
PowerLink (which seems to be morphing into http://support.emc.com) including
some white papers.
I manage both NetWorker and Avamar as separate systems. With NetWorker, I use a
Data Domain system with Boost for backups, which are then cloned to encrypted
LTO-5 tape. That combination works well. Both NetWorker and Avamar have their
unique strengths and weaknesses. For NAS backups via NDMP, nothing comes close
to Avamar (with an NDMP Accelerator Node) in performance. But Avamar can't
touch NetWorker in the speed at which backup data can be cloned from disk to
tape (for off-site vaulting).
I am running NetWorker 7.6.4 on one Linux box (no separate storage nodes). I
will upgrade to 8 once 8.2 comes out. We recently migrated from a generation 3
to a generation 4 Avamar 6.1 grid. The new grid is current with its software,
other than a few small updates, which will be installed soon. Avamar works
great also for virtual disk backups with VMware ESG servers, although the setup
is so challenging that I had to rely on help from EMC to get it to work and
allow individual files to be restored from the backed up virtual disk images.
Now that we have a new Avamar grid with more capacity (seven 3TB nodes) and
room to grow it, is moving the backups of most (not all) non-essential servers
from NetWorker to Avamar. Essential servers such as payroll, student grades,
etc. where the servers play a role in business continuity are all backed up via
NetWorker and DD Boost to a Data Domain system and group cloning sends the back
up data to LTO-5 tape which some nice operator type human beings send off-site
every day. There are two or three servers that have nothing to do with business
continuity that will continue to be backed up via NetWorker to Data Domain (but
not LTO-5 tape) because their backups take so long to complete that it would
interfere with the daily maintenance window of our Avamar grid.
Oh, and I can see this question coming, so I will answer it now. I am not
responsible at all for backing up any Exchange servers so I cannot comment on
how well anything we have with EMC's name on it works for that purpose.
In addition, EMC now supports running NetWorker, Avamar, and also Data Domain
together in numerous configurations. I have not tried any of those
configurations due to a lack of need, but that capability is documented on
EMC's web site for those of you who're curious.
On Oct 4, 2012, at 6:02 PM, bingo <networker-forum AT BACKUPCENTRAL DOT COM>
wrote:
> This will usually end in a longer story so i focus on some key issues:
>
> 1) NW can work with any device type that is supported by the OS (disk and
> tape). Avamar can only use its own node/disk system.
>
> 2) NW by itself does not dedupe the data - Avamar always uses client-site
> deduplication.
>
> 3) NW usually works with fast transport media SAN/LAN while Avamar (due to
> its nature) is ideal for remote offices (slow LAN or WAN).
>
> 4) Avamar is complementary to NW (you can use an Avamar system as a NW
> 'device'). Due to the technology the other way does not make sense.
>
> 5) NW & Avamar accomplishes NW client-site deduplication.
> - Very easy to implement.
> - Very good performance in backups and recoveries.
> - Caveats:
> - So far NW does not easily report the protected save set size -
> only the metadata. This is confusing for statistical purposes. Fortunately,
> NMC has good tools to help here.
> - You must respect Avamar's maintenance window (at least 3 hrs)
> when you should not use it for backups.
> - The cloning of deduped save sets is pretty slow. For this purpose
> you should first backup to a standard AFTD (probably on a Data Domain).
>
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